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Anti- Records Launches First Podcast

Label President Andy Kaulkin takes an In-Depth Look at Two New Releases - Busdriver and the Field

Anti- Records, home to such singularly talented artists as Tom Waits, Neko Case, Nick Cave and Bettye LaVette among others, has launched its first podcast via iTunes and Anti Label Blog.

Hosted by Anti- president, Andy Kaulkin, the inaugural podcast will feature an in-depth examination of two of Anti-'s latest releases, the machine-gunning social commentator Busdriver and Sweden's rising ambient electronic star the Field, and also features music from the Mills Brothers, Eddie Jefferson, Freestyle Fellowship, Flying Lotus, Leon Thomas, Steve Reich, Underground Resistance, and GAS.

A dashing young figure in the Los Angeles underground hip hop scene, Busdriver's latest Jhelli Beam is both smart and smart-ass, theatrical without being pompous, and, as always, funny as hell. BD's legendarily breath-defying flow teeters precariously on top of samples of classical music, jazz drumming and proggy guitar parts, without ever losing sight of the electronic music that helped define his sound, enthralled fans and stood out from the soggy beats that weighed down much of his contemporaries' work. Sound schizophrenic? It's not. The sum of Jhelli Beam's seemingly disparate parts creates a record that is mindfully engaging and booty shaking at the same time - a wholly unique take on what an underground hip hop album should be. "To think of Busdriver's music as hip-hop is to think of Frank Zappa's as rock, Raymond Scott's as jazz or George Clinton's as funk. The classification doesn't quite cover how much more the music says." - Jim Fusili, The Wall St. Journal

On his follow-up to 2007's internationally lauded From Here We Go Sublime, The Field (born Axel Willner) populates his unmistakably airy electronic reverie with a wider cast, adding live percussion and vocals to create the complex and textured Yesterday And Today. With his self-proclaimed love of music ranging from the influential ambience of Gas to the dazed onset of My Bloody Valentine, Willner's craft also places him within the continuum of modern minimalism that flows from the classic space-rock of Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream to 20th century classical in the vein of Phillip Glass or Steve Reich. "Like an electronic Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Axel Willner's music as the Field uses rhythm, repetition and unexpected melodies to make a captivating sound that can be too much for some listeners. But to fans of top-flight techno craftsmanship, it's nothing less than spellbinding." - Scott Sterling, Los Angeles Times